About

Karlee Esmailli here, the founder of Immigrant Father Studios. I'm an Iranian-American person, and I wrote a video game to express all my complex feelings towards America, the middle east, and my clitoris. I'm proud to present The Super Patriotic Dating Simulator.

The Super Patriotic Dating Simulator is a satirical visual novel. Play as Elodie, a 19-year-old CIA super spy. As one of America's most ruthless agents, you’ve been assigned a deadly solo mission: infiltrate and destroy I***.

Besides the whole “super spy” thing, you’re just a normal American girl… who’s really horny. Give these fuckers an American ass-kicking, and maybe learn a bit about your body on the way. Just remember the #1 rule of the CIA: always ask for consent.

7 different “dateable” characters, each with multiple character endings.

Geopolitical intrigue.

Beautiful illustrations at high-tension moments.

One horse.

Helpful reminders for white people that I*** is not representative of Islam or all middle eastern people

The Super Patriotic Dating Simulator is a visual novel. We have the “novel” part written! The first draft is finished. We'll continue refining, expanding, and playtesting that draft until release. We're crowdfunding on Kickstarter to fund all of the other components to the game -- art, music, and development.

Primarily, our budget is going towards our beautiful art. Our team of artists made all the art on this page, and they're excited to make even more good art. We're raising money to pay these artists the money they deserve!

Other than the character design and background art, we're budgeting for music, interface design, sensitivity readers, digital distribution, and a few odds and ends to turn this into a complete product.

We only have ONE official stretch goal, and it's the most badass thing ever. If we hit the funding goal of $54,000, we'll add an original soundtrack by Kitty.

Other than that, we don’t have any specific stretch goals we’re trying to reach -- just hitting our goal will be enough for us to make an awesome game. However, if we’re lucky enough to overfund, we’ll reinvest that money into bells and whistles to make the game even better. Right now, we’re thinking of an expanded art budget, more jokes, and maybe an initial investment on our next project.

Warning: I'm about to get sincere, so if you're just here for the jokes, you can skip this next part.

I love dating SIMs and visual novels. I love my family in Iran, my Persian nose, and middle eastern culture. I love being an American. I'm grateful to live in this country. Despite my love for these different components of my identity, I've felt a deep anxiety towards each of them. These mixed relationships of love and anxiety are the foundational components of The Super Patriotic Dating Simulator.

Dating SIMs, as a genre, have strong roots in the expression of sexuality. Female characters in many dating SIMs are built as sexual objects for heterosexual male players. I wanted to contribute a grounded, accurate, female perspective to this genre typically dominated by the male gaze. The protagonist's story arc in the game centers around the questions that I asked myself as a young woman. Elodie, the main character, wonders: Why am I not orgasming from just penetration? How do I orgasm? Am I gay or straight? Does my virginity matter? Why didn't anyone tell me about this?

To contrast against this grounded discussion of female sexuality, I wanted to subvert the sexual oppression that characterizes so much of I***'s politics. In reality, I***'s oppression of women exists within a patriarchal framework, which subjugates women's bodies, pleasure, and power to men. I found power and strength in an objectified caricature of members of I***. The same tools of objectification that have made me feel diminished, disrespected, and worthless as a woman can be used against the perpetrators of this gendered violence. The tactics of I*** are intended to terrorize. Subversion and comedy are particularly effective against this kind of politics. I want to rob I*** of the terror they work so hard to instill, through this reversal of the sexual narrative.

While the game directly addresses I***'s gender politics, it is equally informed by my identity as a middle eastern person in modern-day America. The Super Patriotic Dating Simulator is specifically about I*** because of American perception of the middle east. To many white Americans, I*** is just a group of brown boogeymen in the desert. I*** is universally disavowed by Muslims - they are not a representative depiction of Islam. And yet, Americans tend to use I*** as the face of Islam and the middle east, and that terrifies me because they literally can't tell us apart and think we deserve to die. The Super Patriotic Dating Simulator is a satire about this American perception. It's a satire of the dehumanizing, inaccurate, atrocious politics of American perception of middle eastern people. It's a desperate plea that we recognize how harmful that perception is.

Ultimately, my growth and understanding of my sexuality have been informed by my connection to middle eastern culture, American culture, and the conflicts I've experienced living between these two perspectives. The Super Patriotic Dating Simulator is an expression of my personal experience -- my anger, my pleasure, my identity -- seen through the lens of comedy.

- Karlee Parvin Esmailli

Risks and challenges

Although our team has a lot of experience working on Kickstarter campaigns, this will be the first campaign we've launched ourselves. Our biggest challenge will simply be to have this game exceed your expectations in quality. We want it to blow you (out of the water!).

While there are always risks involved with Kickstarter projects, our team has worked hard to minimize them. We've completed as much work as possible ahead of time, we've brought together an amazing group of artists, and we've made a detailed budget.